


Layers and Layers and Layers

by woodentarantula



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, I meant to write somethin a lil horny and it ended up sad, M/M, ROYAL SPOILERS takes place on 2/2, if that makes any sense? they dont bone its all foreplay, sexual context and content but not explicit, we can give them some privacy at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26316040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodentarantula/pseuds/woodentarantula
Summary: Bitterness and anxiety thrum through Goro Akechi and Ren Amamiya's veins respectively. Time is short; time together, even less so.ROYAL SPOILERS, takes place on 2/2.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Kudos: 55





	Layers and Layers and Layers

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to the wonderful and handsome [yosgay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yosgay) for the beta.

Ren doesn’t know why they always have to meet in the attic of LeBlanc, but who is he to make demands? LeBlanc has between four and ten people passing through at any given moment, not counting customers. But at night, when Sojiro closes up, Futaba goes home, and Morgana is politely asked to find somewhere else to be for a couple hours, the entire building is still as death. 

How did it go? Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone…

Here, now, silence is restless, with Ren sitting down on his mattress and convincing Goro to come with him. Gloved hand in hand, tugging at leather- gloves, belts, loafers. Goro doesn’t resist, not anymore and this is, what, the third time? Though the last two had been months ago now, this is the last chance they’re going to get. 

Cold air filters through the cracks of the attic walls. The windows above the bed aren’t double paned and the housing they sit in is loose and crumbling. No one was meant to sleep here, not for a year straight and not for a few snached nights in mid-winter. 

“Why?” Goro asks quietly while Ren pops the buttons on his shirt. 

“You know why.” Ren whispers back, shrugging off his own long sleeves. 

“No,” And his voice is tense, strained like he needs to cough. “I know why this. Why did you accept so easily? I thought the phantom thieves don’t kill.”

Ren chuckles quietly, looks at his hands gripping Goro’s own. “How could I claim to free innocents, and chain you to myself?” And Ren forces himself to make eye contact, meet Goro’s eyes but Goro is studying the pattern of the wall. “You may have been my wish in this world, but I couldn’t do that to you knowingly.” He leans forward, pressing open-mouthed kisses on Goro’s throat. 

A mind-melting moan slips from Goro, catching on an inward breath. “You’re too kind.” He says, half playful, half serious. “I don’t deserve it.”

“Of course you do.” Ren is quick to reply, sliding hands wherever they fit naturally. “Everyone at least deserves kindness.”

Goro chuckles, letting his own hands find Ren’s belt loops and lace his fingers through them. 

“I mean it,” Ren says, attempting to make his voice stern but settling instead into husky. “You know Ann almost killed Kamoshida?”

“Really?” Goro replies, cheerily. “Maybe we should talk more.”

_ Should have _ Ren edits in his own head. Though he knows he shouldn’t already be thinking of Goro in the past tense, it’s only a matter of time. Hours. 

“She said death was too good for him. That he deserved to pay for his crimes.”

“Hardly sounds like kindness.” Goro finally slides his coat off, though his shirt is already open. 

Ren’s fumbling with his fly. “I guess not. It’s kindness to Shiho, to his victims. Where are they left if he never confesses, just dies and the cover-up is maintained?”

“And I’m a victim?” Goro’s voice is harsh as he tugs down the strap of Ren’s undershirt, presses lips and teeth to the exposed muscle. It aches, and Ren hopes it bruises, just to be a little more permanent. “I tried to kill you. I did kill other people.”

“You can be both.” Ren breathes out. Again he searches for Goro’s eyes and can’t find them, only seeing his mass of caramel hair. “You were strung along. I can’t be the one still stringing you.”

Teeth on skin, divine. Goro bites down, sucks hard. Winter clothes will easily cover up any mark he makes, but that doesn’t mean Ren won’t revel in it. Goro slips his hands from belt loops to Ren’s back and slides down, fistfuls of Ren’s ass gripped hard and pulled closer to him. When Goro’s satisfied with both his mark and their proximity, then he replies. “Is it pity then? Or selfishness?” 

Ren knows for a fact his pupils are blown wide from the rough handling but it doesn’t stop him from taking a tiny lock of Goro’s hair between two fingers. He thinks about when he wears his scarf and just the barest edge of length gets tucked inside it. It’s so long and silky and smells faintly of orange and sandalwood. He whispers, “I think you often forget about empathy.”

Goro scoffs. “Empathy is for children. They teach it in cartoons. At least,” and finally, he meets Ren’s eyes, still a few strands of hair held gently between fingers. “I thought that. For a long time, I did.”

Before, both nights in early November, what felt like a lifetime away, the layers between Ren and Goro could not be breached. If one mask fell there was another underneath it, grinning open-toothed. His mask when he fights in Sae’s palace, knocked down. His sly smirk when he makes his deal with the thieves, torn away. His public talk-show persona, stripped. And another would slide back into place, all taking turns. Even in the engine room, when Ren thought he was gone- when he  _ was _ gone, he bares his anger and frustration and still the black mask stays firm. Though cracked, it still conceals. 

And it returns for Dr. Maruki’s palace. His princely facade thoroughly defeated, killed, he retains the black mask. And now it’s been repaired. 

Not that Ren’s any better. The amount of faces he’s worn, shared and borrowed from Ryuji and Ann at school, Ohya at the bar, the twins in the metaverse, he has his own irritating layers. Except, Ren has years to work through them.

Goro has a few hours to ignore them. 

Ren wonders if in the metaverse, they could rip each other’s masks off. They’d never tried; personas feel so… well, personal and forcing them to come forth felt like treason. Though treachery between Ren and Goro is nothing new. Ren wants to reach out to Goro, grab hold of the corner of his face and pull, see his eyes and his mouth in kind and know he isn’t being lied to.

But he can’t.

All he can do is hope that it’s the case. And there’s been no precedent that it is.

A cold breeze cuts through the flimsy walls and strikes Ren’s bare skin. He shivers, his shoulders wracked for a second before he pulls the comforter around them both. With one hand on each corner, he falls to his back, pulling Goro down with him. Goro complies, not that a threadbare blanket could make him do much of anything, finding space for each of his hands on either side of Ren’s head.

Ren’s boxed in, forever in a prison of his own making. This one will fade by the end of the night, in only a few moments when Goro decides to put his hands anywhere else but it will follow Ren. He will think of Goro Akechi for a lot longer than he breathes and in his head he will always be boxed in by his arms. 

And hands move, as they are wont to do. Goro’s moves steadily to Ren’s forehead, swiping back black tufts of hair. He cocks his head a moment and pulls off Ren’s glasses. The back of the arm catches on the curve of Ren’s ear, but Goro notices it easily, angling them well. He then folds the arms in against his lips and rests the frame on the floor beside them. 

_ Ah, _ Ren thinks,  _ there’s my answer. _

He will always acquiesce to Goro’s wants. Always won’t last a very long time, but Ren is, has been, squishy. He’s fluid, bending easily to the shape of Goro and perfectly willing to be pulled along. Neither of them started the game, but Goro is here to win. Ren’s just here for a good time. So, if a good time means Goro wins, Ren isn’t going to complain. Regardless, the thought that leaves Ren’s head and enters on his tongue is “Have you worn glasses before?”

Goro smiles, the small one, with no teeth but a glint in the eye that lets Ren know it’s real. It might even be affectionate. “Perceptive. I wore them in middle school. I wear contacts these days. They tend to photograph better.” 

“Of course.” Ren can’t help but saying. And, now that he’s this close and looking for them, he can see the tiny, imperceptible line around Goro’s iris. The tell-tale sign of little plastic lenses sitting comfortably on the eye. “Should you be keeping them in?”

“I don’t have the case for them with me. And besides, I wasn’t planning on sleeping here.” 

Ren’s hand grips the waistband of Goro’s slacks. “Could you be convinced?”

“Your friends will know.” Goro replies, teeth finding Ren’s earlobe and just grazing it. “They’ll come here before heading off tomorrow.”

Head off to confront Maruki. Head off to destroy the world he has created. Head off to kill Goro Akechi. But this is all implied. “That’s fine. You just got here early.” Ren says as he slides a hand to the nape of Goro’s neck, taking a clump of hair in hand. “Really early.” 

Goro chuckles, and it isn’t a no, so Ren hopes it’s a yes. Whether it's a ‘yes, he can be convinced’ or a ‘yes, he’ll stay the night’ Ren is even less sure. That doesn’t stop Ren from hoping and, frankley about all he has is hope. Hope, and the next 24 hours with Goro. He intends to make the best of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I finished Royal like a month ago and boy am I still coping. Tbh the only thought running through my mind on 2/2 was "I can't do that to you" and I had to Write a Thing about it.
> 
> It's a very different bent, but I was finally pushed into writing this by this wonderful comic! I think it really has an excellent way of depicting both Ren and Goro being conflicted and god do I love a bitter Goro. cw for blood. <https://twitter.com/sicklyjelly/status/1302263652460920832>


End file.
